PRION STRUCTURE AND BIOLOGY

Dr. Holger Wille, graduated from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He conducted the experimental parts for both his Master’s and PhD theses at the Max-Planck Unit for Structural Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr. Eckhard Mandelkow. At the Max-Planck group he studied the structure and aggregation of the microtubule-associated proteins Tau and MAP2.

Upon being awarded his doctorate, Dr. Wille joined the laboratory of Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) as a postdoctoral fellow. At UCSF he focused on the structure and aggregation of the infectious prion protein. At the end of his postdoctoral fellowship Dr. Wille became a faculty member of the Department of Neurology at UCSF, continuing his studies on the structure of the infectious prion protein.

In 2012, Dr. Wille joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta (UofA) in Edmonton, Alberta. At the UofA Dr. Wille’s laboratory is located in the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases and focuses on the structure of amyloids and other misfolded proteins. In particular, the structure of infectious prions and the structure-function relationship underlying their infectious nature is being investigated.

PRION DISEASES IN ANIMALS

Dr. Timm Konold, is a veterinary researcher at the Animal and Plant Health Agency Weybridge, UK, with particular interest in farm animal neurology.

After graduation as veterinary surgeon from Munich University and working in laboratory-based and pharmaceutical research as well as general veterinary practice in Germany and the UK he joined the former Veterinary Laboratories Agency Weybridge in 1999 as veterinary researcher responsible for clinical research in prion diseases of farm animals.

He has led and currently leads several TSE research projects funded by the UK Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs and is an author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. More recently, he has been involved in research into other diseases carried out at Weybridge and other institutions as part of his role as named veterinary surgeon responsible for the welfare of animals used for scientific procedures and occasionally helps out in a local veterinary practice.

PRION DISEASES AND PRION-LIKE DISEASES IN HUMANS

Prof. Tiago Outeiro, graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Porto and was an Erasmus student at the University of Leeds in the UK. Prof. Outeiro did his PhD thesis at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical research – MIT and worked as a Research Scientist at FoldRx Pharmaceuticals as a Research Scientist and Consultant.

Prof. Outeiro was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Neurology of the Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School where he focused on the study of Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Prof. Outeiro directed the Cell and Molecular Neuroscience Unit at IMM, Lisbon, Portugal since 2007, and is currently Full Professor and the Director of the Department of Neurodegeneration and Neurorestoration at the University Medical Center Goettingen, in Germany.

Prof. Outeiro has authored >110 research articles in international journals and participates in various international collaborative projects with the aim of identifying the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.